Asmus Toys: Gandalf the White

[SithThundercracker]

Received him today, I need to play with him a bit.
My quick pros and cons:
PROS:
- Headsculpt and paintjob: squished or not, this is a damn good sculpt IMHO. He's Sir McKellen and I like him a lot. Unfortunately the hair is not at the same level.
- Outfit (except the vest): lot of layers, good tissues, well tailored and tight fitting. Metal belt buckles. Good job.
- the body (except the neck): it is the correct slim size for gandalf, with tight joints.
- the ork head. Awesome move!

CONS:
- the vest. It's well tailored but I hate it. I can understand the pattern (even if I don't like it) but why make it grey instead of white? Need to assemble a new one. Luckily the shirt can serve the purpose in the meantime.
- the neck. Double balljointed and way too long for this figure. The head is clearly sitting at least half centimeter too high. Not sure how to fix it.
- the weapons. Staff looks a bit cheap (but the prop too, to be honest), scabbard is a bit on cheap side too (he looks just like the old SSC one) and Glamdring...yeah, it's metal (maybe too shiny) but why make it so clean? No runes? No sapphire? So even the sword looks suspiciously inspired by the old SSC GtG.

Two things that are not pros or cons but made me laugh: the boots are a recast of the SSC ones and three hands are the standard ones that come with KP bodies...that means Gandalf has a right hand made for pulling the trigger of a gun.

Overall I think it's a pretty decent figure. With a very good sculpt and very good clothes they were on the right track, but somehow the missed the details that could have made it a great figure.

 

[Wor-Gar]

I feel better about keeping my order now after your review. Thank you.

I will fix that neck. I will. Vest I'll likely just toss. Or try a paintwash just to see.

 

[jra81984]

They recast the Sideshow Boots? Yikes

 

[superdoug]

Hmmmm. I will have to take a look at the boots whenever bbts gets mine in and ships it to me.

I would think some stuff would look really similar to Sideshow's simply because they are working from the same source material.

Was the body sturdy?

 

[jankatana]

A trigger hand could be used to hold a pipe. Shame about the vest, is the black grid stitching whats most distracting or the silver patterns too?

 

[hoodonit00]

You guys must not be familiar with the extra super secret appendices.

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

Gandalf the (Gunmetal) Grey.

 

[jankatana]

Here's an idea, how about a replacement white vest with aragorn? Did i just say that ?:/

 

[SithThundercracker]

A couple of pics of the good points.
Sculpt and paintjob.

Whole figure and comparison with GtG (I need to re-water treat the cape, I know )

A pic of the bad points.
Metal Glamdring may be better lookin, but it's wrong in many ways: undersized, no runes, worse leather hilt, worse pommel.

I would think some stuff would look really similar to Sideshow's simply because they are working from the same source material.
Was the body sturdy?

Yep, but the boots got the same exact foldings. They're just a tad smaller, but identical shape. Body is good, you wouldn't use extreme poses and he's got no heavy weapons, so it's fine for me.

A trigger hand could be used to hold a pipe. Shame about the vest, is the black grid stitching whats most distracting or the silver patterns too?

You're damn right man!

(just imagine a pipe instead of Luke's saber. I don't know if GtG or Aragorn went with a pipe, but anyway the pipe is in the box down in the basement, sorry).
For me the worst part of the vest is the black grid.

 

[hoodonit00]

I'm at work so the only way I can see the pics is to Google image search the URL which gives me a little picture. With what I can see though that head sculpt doesn't look bad at all.

 

[jankatana]

The boot on the left has more eyelets, but has same creases up the ankles, anyway they are both nice. So yeah i agree about the black grid, change that and its sound.

 

[jankatana]

WIP...for a figure i didnt preorder lol No its not a toilet seat.

 

[jankatana]

So 8 hours later, my version. I want gandalf so much now

 

[abake]

Grat pics, thanks a lot!

There's no question the Asmus head sculpt has a lot more Gandalf in it than the Sideshow one. The figure really does look great.

 

[The Josh]

There's no question the Asmus head sculpt has a lot more Gandalf in it than the Sideshow one. The figure really does look great.

That's totally debatable, IMO.

 

[The Josh]

Looking at some of the pics It appears to be a nice figure. I'll still be passing on it though. Hope those that get it like it and enjoy it.

 

[Wor-Gar]

I'll still be passing on it though. Hope those that get it like it and enjoy it.

Support the line. Lighten the looooooooooooooooad.

 

[The Josh]

Support the line. Lighten the looooooooooooooooad.

Well played. I may get some here and there. This just won't be one. There are too many good things coming from Weta right now so all my funds are going there.

 

[Asmus]

We do see and will evaluate the probelm and improvement of the figure.
(face, vast... good to see our body has overcome the critism at last)

My boss doesn't like the idea of re-run the same characters for the sake of making up our mistake, it is not fair to those who already bought a copy of the original figure.
so re-make is out of the question.

We do want to improve our figure like we do with ML, so likely we can do something about these with Gandalf the Grey, improvements for the White.

We will see what we can do !!

 

[Lejuan]

We do see and will evaluate the probelm and improvement of the figure.
(face, vast... good to see our body has overcome the critism at last)

My boss doesn't like the idea of re-run the same characters for the sake of making up our mistake, it is not fair to those who already bought a copy of the original figure.
so re-make is out of the question.

We do want to improve our figure like we do with ML, so likely we can do something about these with Gandalf the Grey, improvements for the White.

We will see what we can do !!